Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 18

Let's not talk about the tar monsters, because Cressida had no idea that they even existed until they were trying to kill them. Not to mention both her and her boyfriend's aversion to flying coupled with the tar monsters didn't make for a pleasant adventure. And the fact that it would take a small miracle to get the damn tar out of her hair. And that the bucket Percy held reeked as it was filled with the stuff. And that Percy had gotten a perfectly good purple shirt ruined because there was no saving it with the amount of tar that covered it.

"Roofing tar?" Piper guessed as they made it past Jason's room, Frank stumbling after them after he'd shifted back to human, and he had a big smear of the tar down his face.

"Tar monsters," Cressida explained as she tried to wipe the stuff from her hair. "Don't ask. Superman, welcome back to the land of the living," she said once she saw Jason was awake.

"Ok, Hazel, where's Leo and Annabeth?" Percy said as he tried not to gag, holding the bucket as far from him as possible.

"Engine room," she answered as she pointed down the hall.

Suddenly the entire ship listed to port. The demigods stumbled. Percy almost spilled his bucket of tar.

"Uh, what was that?" he demanded.

"Oh..." Hazel looked embarrassed. "We may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake. Like...all of them."

"Great." Percy handed the bucket of tar to Frank. "You guys help Leo. I'll hold off the water spirits as long as I can."

"On it!" Frank promised.

"Let's go," Cressida said and Piper thought he'd tell her to stay behind for a second, but Percy just grinned as they ran for the stairs, Frank running the other way for the engine room as Hazel hugged her stomach as the ship listed again.

The ship rocked back and forth for a time before it stabilized, yet the ocean still raged around it. It wasn't until Piper peeked out of the porthole in Jason's room that she realised Cressida had wrapped massive grapevines around the ship to keep it in place, her control over them better in water and with Percy's help it would seem. Percy and Cressida were shouting though, not at each other, Coach was yelling at the lake and at Percy - apparently, that was the first time they were meeting, and he had some choice things to say about how Percy should act, specifically how Percy should treat Cressida should he want to continue living. And then Cressida would yell at Coach to shut up so they could concentrate.

It was an interesting life, the daughter of Dionysus lived.

Eventually, Cressida let her vines sink as she felt the ship try to rise into the air and then Leo and Annabeth came up to announce that they were safely underway. Both of them were caked in sweat, lime dust and tar and Leo's shirt looked like it chewed to shred. But both of them looked happy as they high-fived one another and called a meeting in the mess hall in an hour.

Cressida had groaned, both from exhaustion and frustration. "That's never going to be enough time to get all the tar out of my hair."

Percy had just grinned, and Cressida looked as if she'd been about to kill him when he ran around, trying to catch her in a hug, getting more tar on them. But she'd just smeared some on his face and in his hair.

Annabeth separated them as she dragged Cressida down to her cabin, both the girls rinsing the grime out of each other's hair, so they didn't miss anything before they went their separate ways to get cleaned up.

Coach Hedge took the helm as the demigods all gathered for dinner.

And the tension in the room didn't just come from all the impending threats, it also came from Percy and Jason.